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The name given to the Mandean New Year’s Feast is Dihba Rba. New Year’s Eve is called ‘Kanshia uZahla’. On this day sheep and chickens are slaughtered to provide a store of food, bread is cooked and brought into the house, small festival cakes are marked with a cross (kleicha) are prepared, dates and vegetables receive careful ablution and are stored within doors where they can suffer no pollution. All day, till evening, the priests baptize the faithful. Five minutes before the sun disappears, every man, woman, and child performs the threefold ritual immersion (ṭamaša) and the women raise joy-cries. Then all retire into the house, where they must remain without going outside for the next 36 hours, i.e. the night before the New Year, the first day of the New Year, called the Day-of-Lacking, and the night which follows it. During this vigil the priests are not idle. They consult the Book of the Zodiac and make predictions about the New Year, its good and bad weather, its chances of disaster or good fortune.
The reason for these precautions is that New Year’s Day commemorates the Creation, for Mana Rba Kabira completed his work of creation on this day. Therefore, all the spirits of light leave their posts and go to visit him and pay their compliments, thus leaving the world undefended. The powers of evil and death are unrestrained - even the waters of river or spring are dangerous and must not be approached or touched. On the second day of the year all the Mandeans come out, visit each other, feast, and make merry. The first visit is to the head-priest (ganzibra), who tells them the portents for the year. Individual forecasts of good or bad fortune may be obtained from the priests, and if unfavourable the inquirer is advised to order the writing of protective scrolls, a qmaha or zrazta. The 6th day of the first month is called Nauruz Zoṭa or Little New Year, and this, and the 7th day, are called Dihba d-Shushian. The night between these two days is called ‘the night of power’, and then, if a man is pious, the gate of Abathur is opened to him in a vision and he obtains whatever he may ask. All lights and fires must be extinguished for this feast and food is distributed to the poor. The Mandean priests visit their flocks and hang on the lintel of every house a wreath of willow and myrtle, which remains there till the next year and is thought to protect the inmates from harm.
Bibliography
| Drower 1937, 85-87 | Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Their cults, customs, magic, legends, and folklore. London: Clarendon Press 1937. |
Amar Annus
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